“Come on, we’ll spy on them from the roof.” Rubio noted while tightening the straps on his new ballistics vest. “Won’t be long before they decide to just come over here anyway.”

  CJ took three steps in the direction Rubio was headed in before stopping dead in his tracks. Dangling right in front of his face from a single piece of webbing was a little brown house spider. It lifted its front left leg and waived it at CJ.

  “Go ahead up, just send a party message.” He spoke while grabbing a nearby chair and sliding it over. He then slapped himself on the forehead before sending Roger a party invite. “I’ve got something else to do. Rogers in the party now, can you guys get him up to speed?”

  “You done barking out orders now? I’ve got a message from the network.” Said the spider with the deepest smoker’s voice CJ had ever heard.

  “Uh…yea. Go ahead I guess.”

  “You’ve got cicadas incoming.” It said before dropping down on CJ’s shoulder. “They’ve increased in number and ferocity. We’ve made note of a new commander class mutation. It’s approaching Boss Monster levels of danger. Got it?”

  CJ marveled at how clear the communication between him and the spider was. It was effortless on his part. His mind raced at the possibility of using this to get the drop on his foes or gain intel on locations. That was it. Dungeons. He could use the Web Works to scout out bolster dungeons for him. With this he could have a monopoly on that information. Hell, he could tell others where to go to clear them and not have to do it all himself. CJ really needed to get back to Leaf’s Bend. There was planning to be done.

  “You listening to me?” said the spider waiving both front limbs now.

  “Right, sorry. Got lost in thought there for a second. I can send messages through you, right? Make requests?”

  “Within reason.” Shrugged the spider. “We all have our own territory. It’s the webs that carry the messages. You’re awfully calm for someone who just received a dire warning.”

  “Par for the course these days.” CJ split his attention and sent a message to the group about the incoming cicadas. “I have a few requests I’d like the network to look into. First of all, I’d like information regarding the group known as the Humanities Saviors based in Newark—” he got cut off by the spiders’ immediate response.

  “What a shit hole. I hated that place before all the goblins moved in. Darkness and human waste just breeds those things.”

  “How colorful. Anyway, I’d like their base scouted. I’m sure I’ll have to come back up this way at some point. Secondly, Dungeons. I want to know where they are, as many as can be found. Especially bolster dungeons.”

  “Is that it?” asked the spider as it paced side to side listening to CJ. “Tell me about all the dungeons and spy on Newark, NJ?”

  “What’s with the attitude?” CJ didn’t appreciate this little spider’s tone. “Did I say something wrong?”

  “I’m a Jersey spider. We all have attitude. If you’re done, judging me, I’m going to go back to eating flies and not talking to humans. We’ll be in touch. Friggin giants and their demands…”

  With that the little spider climbed back up a web line CJ hadn’t even seen before. Since he had a minute to himself, he decided to spend those attribute points and look into his new class option. That should cheer him up.

  You have five unspent attribute points.

  Taking a look at his slate, CJ could see that his Agility was at fourteen, Strength and Wisdom were still at the base ten, and his other attributes were twenty and up. If he dumped all five points into Agility it would be close to twenty. Then his next level up he could balance that stat out. He wondered how much better he’d be able to aim his gun with a twenty in Agility. With that settled he applied all five points to Agility.

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  CJ could feel his limbs get lighter. The time it took signals to go from his brain to his fingers were shortened. He felt more limber. Deciding to test his new limits, he planted both hands on the seat of his chair and attempted to lift his waist and legs straight out. Having never tried this feat of gymnastics before, he overcompensated how much effort to put into it.

  His legs shot out almost at a 180 degree angle and his hips lifted above the back of the seat. For a brief instant he thought he might tip forward and faceplant on the ground. Fortunately for him, his abdominal muscles took over steading his balance. The smile that spread across his face only faltered when he noticed Monty standing behind the chair.

  “Don’t you dare!”

  The black furred bunny who had saved CJ’s life on multiple occasions, nose twitching, decided it would be funny to kick the metal legs of the chair out from under CJ. This action resulted in his bonded owner somersaulting forward and landing on the floor feet flat, knees bent at a forty five degree angle, with both arms wrapped around his shins. His chin rested atop his knees.

  “Now that was impressive,” Jenn stood leaning against one of the dinning room tables, “If Monty had a bucket of fish, we would have a great act for Sea world.”

  CJ stood up straight and composed himself. Behind him he could hear the snickering of both the rabbit and his chemist. He figured the best revenge would be digging through his class tree to find something truly epic to have them drool over. A fight was coming, and he’d need an edge.

  Grabbing his chair back, he dove into his class tab on his slate. Once again transfixed by the paths and options, he focused on the three lanes he’d seen before. Tricks of the trade, Elemental Adaptation, and Familiarity. This time he opened up Tricks of the trade. Blue mana raced down a line to that node opening it up further. He was surprised to see a sub menu of three more options.

  Escape Artistry- Powers and abilities that lend to a great escape.

  Illusions- Baffle the minds of others with fantastic sights and sounds.

  Mentalist-Delve into Tier Two Psychic abilities and spells.

  CJ wanted to peruse them all, but he had limited time and only one class point. Why they only gave class points out at every fifth level was baffling to him. He’d have to press Monty on it later but for now he opened the tree for Escape Artistry. Within were only two options that branched off into opposite directions.

  Flashportation- Uncommon Ability/ Tier Four Planer: Cost 10 mana for thirty yards of omnidirectional movement. Every ten yards after that is an additional mana cost. You explode into a flash of light that can temporarily blind enemies as you slip between dimensions to a location of your choosing.

  “Holy fuck knuckles, that’s good.”

  CJ almost spent his point right then and there but decided to at least look at the second option.

  The Second Dimension- Uncommon Ability/ Tier Four Planer: Cost 15 mana for twenty seconds. Flatten your personal dimensional space allowing you to squeeze through the tightest of gaps in the third dimension.

  CJ felt this was a no brainier. While being able to slip through bars or between impossibly tight cracks in walls, being able to just teleport to the other side of the obstacles was preferable. He spent his newly acquired class point on Flashportation.

  “Are you done yet? We need a plan.” Asked Monty.

  “Let’s find out what they are doing from Rubio. Bottom line, we’re leaving.”

  New Message from Party Leader CJ: Rubio, what’s the situation.

  New Message from Rubio: I can’t really hear them, but they are arguing with some guy in glasses about what to do. Several of them are displaying their new abilities and pointing back to this building. You may have disrupted their unit cohesion.

  New Message from Party Leader CJ: Fine, I’ll go out there and get the ball rolling on this cluster fuck. Robert, can you figure out a way to get the Escalade out of here?

  New Message from Roger: This thing is trippy. Way ahead of you, young blood. Just give the signal and we’ll be riding in style.

  With that CJ stood up noticing he had another slate message he just hadn’t gotten to yet.

  Your Familiar Bond has increased by 10%. You will receive your next bond improvement choice at fifty percent.

  CJ switched over to his familiar tab and noted their bond was now at forty percent. Just ten percent more to go and he could select whether Monty could use his abilities or his skills. Now that he had Flashportation, the choice was pretty clear. Another thought occurred to him, the powers he got from Anansi’s mark showed up under his abilities. Would Monty be able to use those too? CJ was excited to find out but first, he’d have to deal with the wolves at the gates.